# Ep 5 - Confession Of A Pedophile

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 5 Jul 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/f9a6f994-e780-4e30-aea5-b47b00419489/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

***Trigger warning, this episode contains strong and graphic detailed descriptions that may cause stress to some listeners.*** In this episode we hear the disturbing details of Mark Marshall about what he says happened to the girls and some of the depraved acts that were inflicted on him as a child. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Apoche production.
[0:11] Speaker 2: On a sunny Saturday at the football in Adelaide in
[0:14] Speaker 2: nineteen seventy three and.
[0:16] Speaker 3: The rover will put it forward from Santa Wing towards
[0:18] Speaker 3: Santa harf Ford Hobby in the front.
[0:19] Speaker 4: One couldn't pull it down. Knocked on intelligently by sorl Format.
[0:23] Speaker 2: Eleven year old Joanne Ratcliffe took her four year old
[0:25] Speaker 2: friend Kirsty Gordon to the toilet. They were never seen again.
[0:37] Speaker 2: Fifty three years later, joe ane sister Susie is still
[0:41] Speaker 2: searching well.
[0:42] Speaker 3: Of all the baffling crimes that have been committed in
[0:44] Speaker 3: this city, few are more heartbreaking than the disappearance of
[0:47] Speaker 3: Kirsty Gordon and Joan Ratcliffe.
[0:49] Speaker 5: But not having I bought it to bury and to
[0:53] Speaker 5: actually grieve for her.
[0:56] Speaker 2: Probably there are theories that were.
[1:04] Speaker 6: Seen in the cop of a man wearing a check
[1:06] Speaker 6: coat and a brimmed hat leading them from the ground,
[1:11] Speaker 6: never to be seen again.
[1:12] Speaker 1: It was a crime that.
[1:15] Speaker 6: One that'd think was a part of child abuse type
[1:20] Speaker 6: of thing, you know, So do you think there could
[1:23] Speaker 6: be a link between what pedophilia and the battle?
[1:25] Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely no doubt about their suspects.
[1:29] Speaker 7: He should probably be in a mental institution to tell
[1:32] Speaker 7: you the truth rather than imprison.
[1:34] Speaker 5: The gentleman that was dressed in women's clothing was sort
[1:38] Speaker 5: of loitering around where the ladies toilets were rumors.
[1:44] Speaker 7: It's childhood and how do you access that while you're
[1:46] Speaker 7: in prisons. And he was put on that property by government.
[1:50] Speaker 7: He was sent out to there to get him away
[1:53] Speaker 7: from Adelaide because he was molesting too many children.
[1:56] Speaker 1: And possible cover ups.
[1:58] Speaker 7: If you've got a pedophile ring that's catering for the
[2:04] Speaker 7: high high end of society, you'd probably want to protect
[2:08] Speaker 7: that bit of borring.
[2:11] Speaker 2: What happened to Joe Anne and Kirsty and.
[2:14] Speaker 5: I just appeal to those outdo that may have close answers,
[2:19] Speaker 5: please find it within your heart during crime stoppers put
[2:24] Speaker 5: an end to our pain.
[2:28] Speaker 1: Thank you, Susie.
[2:33] Speaker 2: Susie Ratcliffe has gone through years of torment not knowing
[2:36] Speaker 2: what happened to her sister Joanne in nineteen seventy three,
[2:40] Speaker 2: a sister she never actually met. As part of her journey,
[2:45] Speaker 2: Susie began a charity called Leave the Light On, whose
[2:48] Speaker 2: aim is to help families of long term missing persons.
[2:52] Speaker 2: Susie believes that a missing person not only affects the
[2:55] Speaker 2: immediate family, but it's generational and can affect the futures
[2:59] Speaker 2: of family members. Susie inherited these qualities from dad and
[3:05] Speaker 2: a mum in their search for her sister. Mark Marshall
[3:10] Speaker 2: inherited qualities from his family, terrible, despicable qualities. Mark's grandfather
[3:16] Speaker 2: was a pedophile, Mark's dad was a pedophile, and Mark
[3:20] Speaker 2: is a pedophile. Mark Marshall wrote a type of confession
[3:23] Speaker 2: letter while in jail a few years back. He also
[3:26] Speaker 2: appeared in a Royal commission and made the same claims.
[3:30] Speaker 2: Susie has a copy of both his letter and his
[3:33] Speaker 2: appearance in the Royal Commission and she's given them to us.
[3:38] Speaker 2: We also have copies of his police file. They include
[3:41] Speaker 2: break and enter, exposing himself to a child, possessing child pornography,
[3:46] Speaker 2: austraining orders and decent assaults, and a list of other charges.
[3:50] Speaker 2: Mark Marshall has issues that date a long way back.
[3:55] Speaker 5: I think it stems from own child abuse and sexual
[3:59] Speaker 5: abuse when he was a little boy. And it's just
[4:06] Speaker 5: I mean something like that. How does it not affect
[4:09] Speaker 5: someone's mind? Police, Well, they don't. They haven't taken it
[4:17] Speaker 5: as gospel. His statement. A lot of it, they say
[4:20] Speaker 5: is just fantasy stuff that he's made up. But with
[4:25] Speaker 5: some of the details that he's claimed in that statement,
[4:29] Speaker 5: it just you can't make things like that up. It's
[4:33] Speaker 5: just yeah, And there are things that he's stated that
[4:37] Speaker 5: you do ring true with my family about jo Ane's
[4:43] Speaker 5: characteristics and what.
[4:44] Speaker 6: She was like.
[4:47] Speaker 2: I thought long and hard about including Mark Marshall's statement,
[4:50] Speaker 2: mainly because it's disturbing and sick. We've shared some of
[4:54] Speaker 2: the facts, but I think to fully understand what he
[4:56] Speaker 2: is and way came forward, they're important.
[4:59] Speaker 1: To share with you again.
[5:01] Speaker 2: The words you'll hear are the exact words that are
[5:03] Speaker 2: taken from Mark trevor Social statement for the Royal Commission
[5:07] Speaker 2: on the sixteenth of March two thousand and seven. The
[5:10] Speaker 2: voice snacked up.
[5:14] Speaker 3: I can remember one time being in nappies because I
[5:17] Speaker 3: remember Dad taking me nappy off.
[5:19] Speaker 4: I remember him not being rude and doing it like
[5:22] Speaker 4: I remember something.
[5:24] Speaker 3: I remember him laughing with Uncle Johnny one day because
[5:27] Speaker 3: Mom went to the shops and she said to change us.
[5:29] Speaker 3: And I was probably about bigger than one, but I
[5:33] Speaker 3: remember that Dad was chasing me around the backyard with
[5:36] Speaker 3: the hose because he didn't want to have to wipe
[5:37] Speaker 3: my bum and he was trying to get Johnny to
[5:40] Speaker 3: do it.
[5:41] Speaker 4: Then one time he.
[5:42] Speaker 3: Laid me on the table when it was getting dark,
[5:44] Speaker 3: and it was sort of like dark in the kitchen,
[5:46] Speaker 3: darker than it is in the daytime.
[5:48] Speaker 4: And I remember Mum was in the laude room and
[5:51] Speaker 4: Dad wouldn't let Mom.
[5:52] Speaker 3: Open the door, and I could hear Mom saying Michael
[5:55] Speaker 3: or something, but Dad was I must have been crying.
[5:59] Speaker 3: Maybe that's why Mum was yelling, but oh, I can.
[6:02] Speaker 3: The main thing I remember was Dad was he had
[6:05] Speaker 3: the beer bottle, but it felt like it was banging
[6:08] Speaker 3: on my shoulder inside of me. Because they used to
[6:11] Speaker 3: give you tunnels, but my brother had already started doing
[6:14] Speaker 3: that first. The tunnels was something they used to give you,
[6:18] Speaker 3: especially the girls.
[6:19] Speaker 4: But they gave me one.
[6:21] Speaker 3: Mum said something to me when I was little one
[6:23] Speaker 3: day about tunnels because I got very sick or something,
[6:27] Speaker 3: and she said something about my pooh going in my tummy.
[6:30] Speaker 4: And it must have been fixed up.
[6:31] Speaker 3: And I remember belting my brother because my brother tried
[6:35] Speaker 3: to give me another tunnel.
[6:37] Speaker 2: This transcript is disturbing to read and hard to hear.
[6:40] Speaker 2: But as I mentioned in the earlier episode, it's critical
[6:43] Speaker 2: to know what proof Bear had when he started investigating
[6:46] Speaker 2: Mark Marshall's statement. Mark Marshall's accounts are very detailed, and yes,
[6:52] Speaker 2: it might mean that in prison he had lots of
[6:54] Speaker 2: time to read articles and different reports of the girl's disappearance,
[6:59] Speaker 2: but it could also mean that he knows a lot
[7:01] Speaker 2: more and could help solve this mystery for Sussi and
[7:04] Speaker 2: a fan. In the next few pages of the transcript,
[7:08] Speaker 2: Mark goes on to detail to the commissioner the actual
[7:12] Speaker 2: process of tunneling and what his father and brother would
[7:15] Speaker 2: do to.
[7:15] Speaker 1: Him and others.
[7:17] Speaker 2: It's not necessary to go into that detail, suffice to
[7:20] Speaker 2: say that it is shocking and depraved. On page fifteen
[7:25] Speaker 2: of the transcript, the commissioner asked Mark Marshall about what
[7:28] Speaker 2: he knows about the girls at the Adelaide Oval.
[7:32] Speaker 3: Only about Joanne, that's all. And there was one time
[7:36] Speaker 3: a girl that was wearing white that came with her Joanne. Oh,
[7:40] Speaker 3: I didn't know. People have told me what her real
[7:43] Speaker 3: name is now her last name, but I didn't know.
[7:46] Speaker 3: I just knew her as Joanne.
[7:47] Speaker 1: Did you know her other names?
[7:48] Speaker 4: Radcliff or something.
[7:49] Speaker 1: Do you know what happened to her?
[7:51] Speaker 4: I know that we knowed her at football and that.
[7:53] Speaker 3: She was kind of poppers with us, and they told
[7:56] Speaker 3: me that they were going for my birthday.
[7:58] Speaker 1: Did you meet her at the football?
[8:00] Speaker 3: And we knowed her before the big football? But I
[8:03] Speaker 3: didn't know the other girl before the big football.
[8:05] Speaker 1: Do you know what her name is?
[8:07] Speaker 4: Something like Christie?
[8:09] Speaker 3: I think that I called her Christie, but yeah, it
[8:11] Speaker 3: was like Christie was young, yes, but a little bit
[8:14] Speaker 3: bigger than me.
[8:15] Speaker 1: Did you follow a particular team the.
[8:17] Speaker 4: Red and white? Dad's team was.
[8:19] Speaker 1: Red and white North Adelaide.
[8:22] Speaker 3: Yah Roosters and Joanne's team was different, which was that
[8:25] Speaker 3: that was like a blue team.
[8:27] Speaker 4: I think they had red.
[8:28] Speaker 1: Did you see Joanne at the big football?
[8:31] Speaker 4: Yes, but we know her from other footballs before that.
[8:34] Speaker 1: But did you see the big football when she was
[8:36] Speaker 1: with her family?
[8:37] Speaker 3: Oh?
[8:37] Speaker 4: I remember when I saw jo Anne?
[8:39] Speaker 3: Is that because usually Artie Caroline would be carrying me
[8:42] Speaker 3: or I'd be holding her hand.
[8:44] Speaker 1: So you were little, were you, yes?
[8:46] Speaker 4: And she would say she'd go, oh, We're going to.
[8:49] Speaker 3: Go and see Joanne because they used to Artie Caroline
[8:53] Speaker 3: would do rude things with Steven and get Joanne to
[8:56] Speaker 3: do rude things with me and.
[8:57] Speaker 1: The toilets have the football was that the big football at.
[9:02] Speaker 3: The big football, I had to be rude with another
[9:04] Speaker 3: girl who was wearing white. That's the one I called Christy.
[9:08] Speaker 3: I think I called it Christy. It was a name
[9:11] Speaker 3: like Christy.
[9:12] Speaker 1: And she was with.
[9:13] Speaker 3: Yes when we went to this shed thing it was,
[9:16] Speaker 3: I think it had either it was a sliding door
[9:19] Speaker 3: or a noisy door, because I remember and I remember
[9:22] Speaker 3: that it was when the door closed fully. It was
[9:25] Speaker 3: very dark in there, and I remember that first time
[9:28] Speaker 3: because me and the other girl were scared in there
[9:30] Speaker 3: and we wanted the door open. And I remember the
[9:32] Speaker 3: second time we went in there that the girl was
[9:34] Speaker 3: telling me not to be scared because I started panicking
[9:37] Speaker 3: in the dark because I never used to like the dark.
[9:40] Speaker 3: Then after a little while, you can see a little bit.
[9:43] Speaker 3: It was scary at first, but they were saying, can
[9:46] Speaker 3: you see me?
[9:47] Speaker 4: Now? Can you see me? And they were like waving
[9:49] Speaker 4: their hands so I wouldn't be scared.
[9:52] Speaker 1: And then you left the oval.
[9:53] Speaker 4: Yes, we got in the van.
[9:55] Speaker 1: Who was with you?
[9:56] Speaker 3: Me, Mum, Steven and Jackie went with Mum to the van.
[9:59] Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure I had to because I remember being
[10:02] Speaker 3: mad at Mum because I had like a poncho which
[10:04] Speaker 3: is and white, and I remember Mum taking that off me,
[10:08] Speaker 3: and I remember being upset, and I remember Mum telling
[10:10] Speaker 3: me I was going to get it back.
[10:12] Speaker 4: And I'm pretty sure that when.
[10:13] Speaker 3: We got to the car and Dad's dad came with
[10:16] Speaker 3: joe Anne and the other girl she was wearing my
[10:19] Speaker 3: poncho to the car.
[10:20] Speaker 1: Did joe Enne come to the car?
[10:23] Speaker 4: Yes, we went to the car first, and then joe
[10:25] Speaker 4: Anne come with the other girl. She was holding her.
[10:27] Speaker 1: Hand, you call her Christians.
[10:29] Speaker 4: And Granddad was following him. Your granddad, Dad's Yes, Dad's dad.
[10:35] Speaker 3: What's his He was wearing mum's dad's hat and jacket
[10:38] Speaker 3: because we had to pinch that from Poppa's house up before.
[10:41] Speaker 4: But I didn't understand why.
[10:43] Speaker 1: Now Poppa is your mother's father, Is that right? Yes?
[10:47] Speaker 1: What's his name?
[10:48] Speaker 4: His name is stan.
[10:50] Speaker 1: Stan what Hart? Now? When you left the oval, where
[10:54] Speaker 1: did you go?
[10:55] Speaker 4: We went to Poppa's housing first, we stopped it. Can
[10:58] Speaker 4: I draw it on a new page? Yes, we had.
[11:00] Speaker 3: To hide underneath the blankets in the back of Dad's van.
[11:04] Speaker 3: Mum had some two blankets. I remember one being it.
[11:08] Speaker 4: Was like a ready color with white patterns on it
[11:10] Speaker 4: and it was like wool like and we.
[11:13] Speaker 3: Had to hide underneath their and we wasn't they wasn't
[11:16] Speaker 3: allowed to get out. And I remember that they kept
[11:18] Speaker 3: telling the girl that they were going to my birthday
[11:20] Speaker 3: and I.
[11:21] Speaker 4: Was excited because it was my birthday.
[11:22] Speaker 1: And I remember, was it your birthday?
[11:25] Speaker 3: I found out when we got to Poppas it wasn't
[11:27] Speaker 3: my birthday. They said that they just said that to
[11:31] Speaker 3: get the.
[11:31] Speaker 4: Girl to go there.
[11:32] Speaker 1: So you went to yes, because.
[11:34] Speaker 3: I remember I was angry because I didn't have When
[11:36] Speaker 3: I got there, there was no cake or balloons or anything.
[11:41] Speaker 3: There wasn't even no party there. But when before we
[11:45] Speaker 3: went to we had to hide underneath the blankets until
[11:48] Speaker 3: the big road. That the same big road that we
[11:50] Speaker 3: got on from the football that goes all the way
[11:52] Speaker 3: up and I remember that this is Smithfield because we
[11:56] Speaker 3: always stopped at the shop and on this side of
[11:58] Speaker 3: the road there's like you know, the one with the
[12:00] Speaker 3: shell yellow shell on it, and your cars parked there
[12:04] Speaker 3: and you can get chips and thick shakes and that
[12:06] Speaker 3: there and petrol and there's another one. I think it's
[12:09] Speaker 3: Ampoule or something, but they're on this side of the road.
[12:12] Speaker 3: When you're driving to Poppa's house. If you go this way,
[12:15] Speaker 3: you're going back to Adelaide. Well, when Dad parked, usually
[12:19] Speaker 3: we park in the car park when we go to
[12:21] Speaker 3: Poppa's house and we get the drinks or anything we
[12:24] Speaker 3: went to go. But this time Dad went on another
[12:26] Speaker 3: road and there's like a little hill thing here and
[12:29] Speaker 3: there's a little road next to some houses, and that's
[12:32] Speaker 3: when we were allowed to get out of the van.
[12:35] Speaker 3: Dad parked the van there and then he ran across
[12:37] Speaker 3: the road because I remember Mum when she was Mum
[12:40] Speaker 3: said we.
[12:40] Speaker 4: Could get out of the car to stretch our legs.
[12:43] Speaker 3: And there's like a little hill thing there with and
[12:46] Speaker 3: I think there's some little trees on it, but not
[12:48] Speaker 3: really bushy trees.
[12:50] Speaker 4: I remember we kept running up.
[12:51] Speaker 3: To see if Dad was coming back over the hill,
[12:54] Speaker 3: and I remember Mum was telling us off to get
[12:56] Speaker 3: back near the van because we was meant to be hiding.
[12:59] Speaker 4: And I didn't understand.
[13:00] Speaker 1: Why we had to didn get out of the van.
[13:03] Speaker 4: Yes, we all did, because joe Anne was our.
[13:05] Speaker 1: Friend then and was she older than you.
[13:07] Speaker 4: Yes, she was the oldest.
[13:10] Speaker 1: Did you go to sleep at the house not till later.
[13:14] Speaker 3: What happened was Dad put up two camping beds in there,
[13:17] Speaker 3: like they fold up.
[13:18] Speaker 4: There's legs like that and they fold up together and
[13:21] Speaker 4: they squeezed together and it's like an army bed.
[13:24] Speaker 3: Then when you unfolded, the legs go like that and
[13:27] Speaker 3: the bed is like that, and it's like green and these.
[13:29] Speaker 4: Bits of wood.
[13:31] Speaker 1: And then what happened.
[13:33] Speaker 3: There was one by the door and one near the
[13:35] Speaker 3: other side of the other one. And this is the
[13:37] Speaker 3: one later on in the night because after we had
[13:39] Speaker 3: the fight with the girl, Mum took us to go
[13:42] Speaker 3: because the girls were going to sleep in here, and
[13:44] Speaker 3: we was all sitting in there, and that's when they
[13:46] Speaker 3: tried to give the girl and the white dress the tunnel.
[13:49] Speaker 3: And that's when she had a shock. That's what Mum said,
[13:52] Speaker 3: but Joanne told me later she was dead. That's when
[13:58] Speaker 3: everything started getting scary.
[14:00] Speaker 1: And who gave it the tunnel?
[14:03] Speaker 3: I remember if this was the bed. The girl's head
[14:06] Speaker 3: was up this end where the door is. She was
[14:08] Speaker 3: laid down there. There was mum on this side. They
[14:12] Speaker 3: was on the bed sort of like on the bed
[14:14] Speaker 3: or nearly on the bed as well. And I don't
[14:17] Speaker 3: know whether they was holding her down or anything, but
[14:19] Speaker 3: I remember I had to hold the leg that was
[14:21] Speaker 3: on this side, and I remember laying on the leg
[14:24] Speaker 3: and to stop her kicking my brother. My brother had
[14:27] Speaker 3: the needle. Because I was only three, I guess that
[14:30] Speaker 3: I wasn't really I was more daydreaming than paying attention
[14:33] Speaker 3: to what they were doing because I didn't understand what
[14:35] Speaker 3: they were doing. I just remember the only thing that
[14:38] Speaker 3: comes to my mind is Mum telling me that I
[14:40] Speaker 3: had to put my hand on the needle and something
[14:42] Speaker 3: about my brother not having any chances left.
[14:46] Speaker 4: I remember that sticks in my mind that I didn't
[14:49] Speaker 4: understand a clue what it meant.
[14:51] Speaker 3: And I remember how it was awkward to hold her
[14:53] Speaker 3: leg down, and my brother saying to my mom all
[14:55] Speaker 3: the time, he's.
[14:56] Speaker 4: Taking his hand off, he's taking his hand off and back.
[15:00] Speaker 3: I'd say it was because my brother was laying over her,
[15:02] Speaker 3: it was hard for me to reach to put my
[15:04] Speaker 3: hand on the needle.
[15:07] Speaker 1: So what happened to Joanne later on?
[15:10] Speaker 3: What happened was after the girl got taken out. I
[15:12] Speaker 3: don't know where she was taken it first. I didn't
[15:15] Speaker 3: find out till later, but Mum, Joanne, Caroline, these beds
[15:19] Speaker 3: were taken out.
[15:20] Speaker 4: We were all locked in here. I'm like in the jail.
[15:24] Speaker 3: There was Mum, Caroline, Poppa had come back, Popper, Mum's dad,
[15:28] Speaker 3: and I remember that Johnny was in the room with us,
[15:31] Speaker 3: and I remember that he was all locked in there.
[15:33] Speaker 3: And that's when Mum started talking about things I had
[15:36] Speaker 3: to remember, and that I was going to live, that
[15:39] Speaker 3: Dad was going to let me live because Dad was
[15:41] Speaker 3: very angry that this girl had died and he didn't
[15:44] Speaker 3: I thought.
[15:44] Speaker 4: My impression is that he didn't get to do what
[15:47] Speaker 4: he wanted to.
[15:47] Speaker 3: Do with her before she died, and he was very
[15:50] Speaker 3: angry with Mum and was basically threatening Mum's life.
[15:53] Speaker 4: And also joe Anne and Caroline were scared they were
[15:56] Speaker 4: going to get killed.
[15:57] Speaker 1: What happened then we tried to.
[15:59] Speaker 3: Run away after we was locked in. Mum got taken
[16:02] Speaker 3: out and that's when my brother lifted me up. There's
[16:05] Speaker 3: like a room, there's a door there. There's like another
[16:09] Speaker 3: room with a fish tank in it, and this is
[16:11] Speaker 3: like a filled in verandah and there's a bathroom there.
[16:14] Speaker 3: But that wasn't really being used as a bathroom when
[16:16] Speaker 3: we was there. That got changed into a bathroom later.
[16:20] Speaker 1: What happened to Joanne?
[16:23] Speaker 4: She died the next day.
[16:25] Speaker 3: After that night, the girl got put in a hole
[16:27] Speaker 3: by the fence in the bag she was in the
[16:31] Speaker 3: bag I never saw the bags that had blood on them.
[16:35] Speaker 3: Was put in a hole by the fence.
[16:37] Speaker 1: And did you know were you able to point out
[16:39] Speaker 1: to anyone?
[16:40] Speaker 3: I've never known for sure where the fence was. I
[16:43] Speaker 3: remember Dad's police trying to make me say, but I
[16:47] Speaker 3: didn't know.
[16:47] Speaker 4: I was only three. I got taken.
[16:50] Speaker 3: I fell asleep on the way where we was driving
[16:53] Speaker 3: to wherever it happened. I was cuddled up to one
[16:55] Speaker 3: of the girls all the time because I was that panicking.
[16:59] Speaker 3: I wouldn't let mom and Dad touch me because I
[17:01] Speaker 3: was scared of him.
[17:04] Speaker 1: Now, what happened to you? And she died the next day.
[17:09] Speaker 3: I saw her when she the last time I saw her,
[17:12] Speaker 3: she was still alive because she.
[17:14] Speaker 4: Was all broken. Where was at Poppa's house at this corner.
[17:19] Speaker 3: What happened was after the other girl died, Dad went
[17:22] Speaker 3: down to the only phone and the power is at
[17:24] Speaker 3: the post office, which is a.
[17:25] Speaker 4: Long way down this road and Dad went down there.
[17:29] Speaker 3: I remember he walked back and he was talking to
[17:31] Speaker 3: Mum about ringing his police or something and so. And
[17:35] Speaker 3: then what happened was they was having a meeting inside
[17:38] Speaker 3: and we was allowed to go to sleep. I remember
[17:41] Speaker 3: that in the morning we got sent to play outside
[17:43] Speaker 3: and there was Dad and some people were having a
[17:45] Speaker 3: meeting in there, and Mum said Dad was talking with
[17:48] Speaker 3: the police. We was told to play out in the back,
[17:51] Speaker 3: but not to go around the front, so.
[17:53] Speaker 4: They knew that we was there.
[17:55] Speaker 3: They was having a meeting inside with joe Anne, and
[17:58] Speaker 3: so we played. And you know when it's hot, you know, winter,
[18:01] Speaker 3: and you get the wet on the ground. They were
[18:03] Speaker 3: starting to dry and when jo Anne came out and played.
[18:06] Speaker 3: So it must have been maybe about between ten and
[18:09] Speaker 3: twelve that joe Anne was allowed. When Joanne came out,
[18:12] Speaker 3: maybe a bit earlier. But when she came out, that's
[18:15] Speaker 3: when we ran around to look through because Poppa's garage
[18:18] Speaker 3: is here. There's a gap here. We went to see
[18:21] Speaker 3: who was coming out of the thing, and there was
[18:23] Speaker 3: two man's in like the black suits like Dad's police wear.
[18:27] Speaker 3: So I never saw their faces, but I don't know
[18:30] Speaker 3: for sure if it was Dad's police, but I just
[18:32] Speaker 3: assumed that it was Dad's police that went back out
[18:35] Speaker 3: and got in the car.
[18:36] Speaker 4: And also Granddad took.
[18:38] Speaker 3: Arnie carrolline later on in the day after Joanne got
[18:40] Speaker 3: hurt because Granddad came down as well.
[18:44] Speaker 1: Why do you call them Dad's police.
[18:47] Speaker 4: Because they was always like helping Dad, That's what it
[18:50] Speaker 4: seemed like.
[18:51] Speaker 1: Where did they come from?
[18:52] Speaker 3: Do you know they had a the shop with the
[18:55] Speaker 3: clock at Elizabeth They used to have a big police
[18:58] Speaker 3: station there, and they had an office in that big
[19:00] Speaker 3: police station.
[19:01] Speaker 1: Do you know their names?
[19:03] Speaker 4: I know them now. There's a mister Cawley and mister Hudson.
[19:07] Speaker 3: Like someone showed me their photos and I said, that's
[19:10] Speaker 3: Dad's police and they said that's mister Carley and mister Hudson.
[19:22] Speaker 2: The information in Mark Marshall's transcript is very detailed. He
[19:26] Speaker 2: remembers the team as Papa went for and the team Joe.
[19:28] Speaker 1: Anne went for.
[19:30] Speaker 2: He remembers the game. He recalls with exact detail what happened.
[19:34] Speaker 2: And each time I read the document, I wonder if
[19:36] Speaker 2: it's just the time in jail that's allowed Mark to
[19:39] Speaker 2: create this story, or is it something more sinister. Mark
[19:44] Speaker 2: Marshall has never been charged with anything to do with
[19:47] Speaker 2: the girl's disappearance, and his earliest recollection is a young
[19:51] Speaker 2: boy of around three years old. If you think back
[19:54] Speaker 2: to your own earliest memories of a child three years
[19:57] Speaker 2: old might be a bit of a stretch, although it
[20:00] Speaker 2: is obvious that Mark Marshall's childhood was very different from
[20:03] Speaker 2: yours of mine. Now move on to page fifty two
[20:06] Speaker 2: of the transcripts. At this stage, the Commissioner is around
[20:09] Speaker 2: ninety minutes into Mark Marshall's statement. In front of markus
[20:13] Speaker 2: and pens in a book that he's drawing diagrams. The
[20:16] Speaker 2: diagrams are of the area of which Mark claims Joan
[20:19] Speaker 2: was taken and also the property which was searched. On
[20:23] Speaker 2: page forty nine of the document, Mark talks about that
[20:26] Speaker 2: he heard two bangs like a loud gun shot. He
[20:30] Speaker 2: claims his dad and his popper had a gun and
[20:33] Speaker 2: went to the room that Joanne was being kept in.
[20:36] Speaker 2: Mark then told the commissioner after two gunshots were fired,
[20:41] Speaker 2: his dad stormed down the hallway angry and grabbed Mark
[20:45] Speaker 2: and yelled who shot Joanne? Me or Popper. Mark suggests
[20:50] Speaker 2: that his dad was saying, forget about what you heard
[20:53] Speaker 2: and saw and make sure you never talk about it.
[21:00] Speaker 2: Mark then states that the next morning he was in
[21:02] Speaker 2: the back of a van and started to wake up
[21:05] Speaker 2: and asked where joe Anne was, and that's when his
[21:08] Speaker 2: mum and dad, who were in the front seat, said,
[21:10] Speaker 2: Joanne who you must have had a bad dream. In
[21:14] Speaker 2: Mark's words to the commissioner, it was like joe Ane
[21:18] Speaker 2: never existed. Although this sounds far fetched, you remember Bear
[21:22] Speaker 2: mentioned in an earlier episode the prescription book that they
[21:26] Speaker 2: found at the Yat and the property, which was open
[21:28] Speaker 2: on the page about drugging people for sleep.
[21:31] Speaker 6: There was a doctor's book in a cabin in the
[21:34] Speaker 6: land room, and when I it was it.
[21:37] Speaker 8: Was a prescription properties died and it kind of tells
[21:45] Speaker 8: you how to use prescription drugs properly and.
[21:49] Speaker 4: What they used for.
[21:50] Speaker 6: And when we opened it, the book opened to a
[21:56] Speaker 6: page that you know how a book has been opened
[22:00] Speaker 6: frequently to a certain page. Well, it is open to
[22:03] Speaker 6: a page where it tells you it had a use
[22:06] Speaker 6: particular dragon to put somebody in a hypnotic trainage.
[22:10] Speaker 2: The commissioner then asked Mark what happened to Joane's body.
[22:14] Speaker 2: Mark says that he didn't know, but he said a
[22:16] Speaker 2: few days later his brother told him they got a
[22:19] Speaker 2: tank his poppa hat near the shed. That tank, as
[22:22] Speaker 2: Mark puts, it was similar to the barrels that Bear
[22:25] Speaker 2: and the police found. Mark claims that his dad took
[22:28] Speaker 2: him to these tanks a few days later and he
[22:31] Speaker 2: saw Joanne in a bullet hole in the forehead. The
[22:35] Speaker 2: following is quite gruesome. From Mark's accounts, Joanne was stuffed
[22:39] Speaker 2: in the barrel.
[22:40] Speaker 3: It was like a piece of bone. Yes, it was
[22:44] Speaker 3: poking out. And Dad was pushing my face against her, saying,
[22:48] Speaker 3: do you want to look like that? Do you want
[22:50] Speaker 3: to look like that? And I could smell her like
[22:53] Speaker 3: she smelled yucky, and she was all white like this.
[22:57] Speaker 3: And that's when Dad had these bags like they did
[22:59] Speaker 3: with the other girl, and Dad started dropping her. I
[23:03] Speaker 3: started screaming that, and Dad couldn't shut me up that.
[23:07] Speaker 3: Dad ended up letting me go through. I had to
[23:09] Speaker 3: get my brother to help me too, so I started
[23:12] Speaker 3: walking up and he got tangled up in these like
[23:15] Speaker 3: prickle bushes. There's all these little tunnels because it used
[23:19] Speaker 3: to be all filled with these like prickle bushes, so
[23:22] Speaker 3: he couldn't get down to that area.
[23:24] Speaker 4: You couldn't even see down there from the wall.
[23:27] Speaker 3: My brother came and showed me the way back out
[23:30] Speaker 3: to the wall, and then I ended up going back
[23:32] Speaker 3: across the mum. But that was after Dad started chopping
[23:36] Speaker 3: her up. As far as I know, she was being
[23:40] Speaker 3: chopped up and put into the tank. I remember before
[23:45] Speaker 3: they started chopping her up. You know where the tank is,
[23:49] Speaker 3: It's got like a little hole in the top. Dad
[23:52] Speaker 3: put hammer holes on the opposite side of the hole
[23:55] Speaker 3: where the hole was he put hammer. There's like the
[23:58] Speaker 3: bumpy bits he put. He's got like a hammer that's
[24:01] Speaker 3: got an axe one side and a hammer on the
[24:04] Speaker 3: other jip rock and he put holes in the thing
[24:07] Speaker 3: so the water could go in there.
[24:10] Speaker 4: And that they took because when they pulled Joanna in,
[24:13] Speaker 4: there was these.
[24:13] Speaker 3: Things on a little black things and they thought they
[24:18] Speaker 3: were crabs because they had claws, But now I know
[24:21] Speaker 3: that they're yabbies. But that's what made the hole in
[24:24] Speaker 3: the face.
[24:25] Speaker 1: We have to let these people take you back. So
[24:28] Speaker 1: I just got a few other questions. Have you told
[24:30] Speaker 1: police about what happened?
[24:32] Speaker 3: The police already they knowed when I was little, and
[24:36] Speaker 3: someone's been up there, because when I got taken, just
[24:39] Speaker 3: before I came to jail, the end of the tank
[24:42] Speaker 3: had been cut off, like so now the tank is.
[24:46] Speaker 4: One big hole.
[24:47] Speaker 1: You got taken by who? That was?
[24:50] Speaker 4: Mister Weeding and another man.
[24:53] Speaker 1: Did you tell them about it?
[24:55] Speaker 3: They already knew about it. I didn't have to tell
[24:57] Speaker 3: them about it. They were like telling me not to
[25:00] Speaker 3: tell anyone else. That's what it seemed to me when
[25:03] Speaker 3: you went up there with the police. Did you find
[25:05] Speaker 3: the tank, Yes, the tank was still there.
[25:08] Speaker 1: Did you find jo Anne?
[25:10] Speaker 4: No?
[25:11] Speaker 3: They took her out when I was about seven. They
[25:15] Speaker 3: took her out of the tank, the bones out of
[25:17] Speaker 3: the tank.
[25:17] Speaker 1: Who took her out?
[25:19] Speaker 4: Dad, brother Allan Ruskin?
[25:22] Speaker 1: Do you know what they did with them?
[25:23] Speaker 4: No? I was never allowed to know where they put
[25:25] Speaker 4: her bones.
[25:26] Speaker 3: But I do remember that my brother and me when
[25:29] Speaker 3: I was little, had to there was something in the
[25:31] Speaker 3: fire at Popper's. Popper's got a place where he used
[25:35] Speaker 3: to have guy Fawk's Knight, and I remember that near
[25:37] Speaker 3: Poppers would pile where they had guy Fawks Night, and
[25:41] Speaker 3: I remember having to sit there with Dad's sledgehammer and
[25:44] Speaker 3: break things and maybe I was if I remember that
[25:48] Speaker 3: they may have even been the teeth of something, and
[25:50] Speaker 3: we had to break them in little tiny pieces.
[25:53] Speaker 2: Make Marshall's statement to the Commissioner is other eighty pages long.
[25:57] Speaker 2: We heard from Susie that it was a very difficult read,
[26:00] Speaker 2: given its graphic nature and how this was not just
[26:03] Speaker 2: a body in a barrel. It may have been her
[26:06] Speaker 2: big sister. You also must remember that police labeled this
[26:10] Speaker 2: account of fantasy.
[26:12] Speaker 6: A police said it was all fantasy and fiction and
[26:17] Speaker 6: none of it existed.
[26:18] Speaker 4: And I said.
[26:20] Speaker 6: Well, we've actually found a place, and we were we've
[26:25] Speaker 6: been up there and yeah, yeah, we've been out there too.
[26:28] Speaker 6: They said.
[26:30] Speaker 4: Stuff.
[26:30] Speaker 2: And there the Bear, the private investigator, things differently either way.
[26:35] Speaker 2: This account from mac marshall was the starting point for
[26:38] Speaker 2: Bear and his team to start their search and also
[26:41] Speaker 2: give Susie and a family a little bit of hope.
[26:45] Speaker 6: He described the place quite well in his little mud
[26:48] Speaker 6: map that he drew up. And we couldn't we actually
[26:52] Speaker 6: initially searched for We went and bought and started searching
[26:58] Speaker 6: for the town, and we we couldn't. We couldn't find
[27:03] Speaker 6: the proper the town on a map. And then I
[27:07] Speaker 6: went on too Google and actually found the town. And
[27:10] Speaker 6: as we moved down the street on the Google map,
[27:15] Speaker 6: I saw the pine trees that he'd drawn on the map,
[27:18] Speaker 6: and all the heads stood up on my neck and
[27:20] Speaker 6: I go, oh, my god, but this place doesn't exist,
[27:25] Speaker 6: and that that was the most horrifying thing of all.
[27:28] Speaker 6: After I'd read the statement, I found out that place
[27:31] Speaker 6: actually existed.
[27:34] Speaker 2: In the next episode of Little Lost Girls, Susie talks
[27:38] Speaker 2: about her feelings on the police investigation.
[27:41] Speaker 5: It was only if they suddenly got information or you know,
[27:47] Speaker 5: the papers or the TV were going to come out
[27:51] Speaker 5: with something that they'd remam and go think like this
[27:54] Speaker 5: is this is coming out or this has happened to
[27:57] Speaker 5: be prepared and then in later years they didn't even
[28:01] Speaker 5: do that.
[28:02] Speaker 2: A new DNA test that might help solve this mystery.
[28:05] Speaker 5: With five hundred different sets of remains being in those
[28:10] Speaker 5: more because that means there's over five hundred families around
[28:13] Speaker 5: Australia that could finally have answers and if we can
[28:16] Speaker 5: raise that awareness about the missing loved one and reach
[28:19] Speaker 5: that person that might have a piece of that puzzle.
[28:23] Speaker 2: And Susie's tragedy of losing a sister and how that
[28:27] Speaker 2: inspires her every day to help others.
[28:30] Speaker 5: It's all worth it and that's what I strive for.
[28:33] Speaker 5: You know, it's heartbreaking to know that we might not
[28:37] Speaker 5: ever locate the girls, but it's so saying that I'm
[28:40] Speaker 5: not going.
[28:40] Speaker 4: To give up hope.
[28:42] Speaker 5: My hope is all we have and if I give
[28:44] Speaker 5: that up, then we've got nothing.
[28:52] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting this story.
[28:56] Speaker 2: Independent storytelling that shapes the world is what pod shape
[28:59] Speaker 2: really cares about. Right now, There's thousands of people listening
[29:02] Speaker 2: to this show and our other true Crimes and there
[29:04] Speaker 2: can delely engaged. More than ten million Australians listen to
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[29:11] Speaker 2: business in a podcast, there's a link to reach out
[29:13] Speaker 2: in the show notes, or head to podshape dot com
[29:16] Speaker 2: to book a free call.

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